Here is what we got going for March & April 2007 !
Hope to see you there....
Saturday March 31,2007
Short Stop - Coon Rapids, MN
8:30 - 12:30 pm NW corner of Foley & Northdale
Saturday April 7th, 2007
American Legion Hall Zimmerman, MN
5:00 - 7:30 pm HAPPY HOUR !!
The Short Stop is "ground zero" for the continued eruptions of HOT ROCK performed by the Lava Lords. Apparently they just can't get enough of us so we will be putting on our game face and pulling out all the stops to make it a fun time.
The Zimmerman Legion gig might be the first time we have ever played during HAPPY HOUR !! On that Saturday it will be a daylong event to benefit the troops overseas in Iraq and elsewhere. Last we heard the line up was going to look something like this:
1:00 pm Sisters Attic
http://www.myspace.com/sistersattic
3:00 pm HonkeyTonk Heart
5:00 pm Lava Lords
8:00 pm Rukkus
If you happen to be road tripping and find yourself in Zimmerman - come on by for Happy Hour! We'll be there "Milling About Smartly" - Last we knew there were plans being made to video / audio record the goings on....should be a BLAST!
18 March 2007
01 March 2007
Myth / WolfMother / Icarus Line
(from the bass players perspective)
Most of us reading music reviews more than likely have read other reviews by the same author and have a general idea of the authors “frame of reference” that he or she has regarding a particular genre of music or a particular music venue or scene. Also as everyone knows 5 people can go to the same event and come away with 5 totally different opinions of what they just experienced. One might give a thumbs up. One might offer a thumbs down and three waffling somewhere in the middle. I remember one critics “review” of a particular movie I had wanted to see and they more or less stated that it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. After seeing the movie myself I might have thought it SUCKED. Going forward from there I might not have as much respect for that particular critics opinion or generally took their opinion with a grain of salt. Over time you seem to generally find critics you can loosely agree with on most topics.
So, rather than just throw my opinion “out there” I figure I had best first come clean on a little background on who I think I am and what makes me tick and why my opinion might evolve to the conclusion I arrive at.
Me, Me, ME…all about me. You guessed correctly…..I’m “oldish” …well I think young or I think I think young…at least people have told me I seem to have a youthful outlook on life. Ok, blurting it out….I am 50. Yes 50 years old. This means that when I was a teenager I was living in the late sixties and seventies. Many of my early musical experiences in life for me revolved around many of the bands that are now considered “classic rock”. Don’t worry, I won’t be claiming that I was actually at Woodstock, but you will have to trust me one this one. It was a great time to love music and be a teenager !!! Those times, for better or worse are permanently etched in my psyche.
I have been a musician most of my life starting with hacking on grandma’s piano as a toddler, playing trumpet starting in the 4th grade, singing in the church choir and evolving from there to guitar and bass……
Anyway, at this point in my life….
Do I go out regularly on the Minneapolis musicscene to check out new bands? No
Do I ever get out of the house? Yes
Do I feel I have my thumb on the heart beat of the local MusicScene ? No
Have I been to every venue in town? No
Have I been to MOST of the musical venues in town? No
Do I like and appreciate all forms of music including RAP and Opera? No
Do I consider myself a musical authority? No
Am I even in a band? Yes
Do I have aspirations of grandeur or a place in music history? No
All I know is that I do love music and I know what I like and here it is!
Myth Nightclub
I live in North Metro suburbia. I’ve been to shows at First Avenue. I like going to shows at First Avenue. At first it felt weird going to Myth. Didn’t seem right going to a nightclub in suburbia, especially basically in a Mall parking lot. One of the nice things for me is it is just as easy to drive to Myth as it would be to drive to First Avenue. I take that back. It’s actually EASIER ! Parking is easier too. Plenty of parking….and FREEEEE…We got there at ten minutes to 8:00 when the doors were to open. Originally we were going to leave our coats in the car but decided against it due to the BLIZZARD. There was a fairly long line outside already and the snow was blowing / cold as heck in the wind…..Great decision to wear the coats. Of course if I WERE still a young punk in my twenties, I would have been right there with many other of the “manly men” standing in line with only a T-Shirt and sandles freezing my ass off so everyone would be able to see all my tattoos but pretending the weather didn’t bother me and only losers would even want to be seen wearing a coat, let along a hat and gloves…but I digress. (oh and don't forget the "boonesfarm babes" flirting with Kinger - he still must be a chick magnet)
Apparently the doors were opening right at 8:00, we were fairly far back in line.
A guy appeared barking orders. “When I say go, everyone from here to here stay in the line you are in, everyone from right here to ……..(walking back farther in the line)…here advance forward and start line two and then those from here to here move forward to start line three.” GO !! Of course we joked with those around us that he didn’t really work for the Myth he was just trying to start a riot or get his friends in quicker.
In what seemed to be only a few minutes past eight were on our way in, getting stamped, checked for weapons, tagged with a wrist band so we could imbibe our favorite beverages and there we were…checking out Myth for the first time. On the way in we noticed a sign stating the “fire code capacity” was 4,400 people. We wandered around checking it out looking for our “spot”. We didn’t have too look far. We knew we didn’t need to be right down on the dance floor so we set up just behind to the right of the sound board. Not a table but a great place to stand, a ledge for our beverages, no way anything would be blocking our view as the next level in front of us was 4 feet below us. The stage was right at our eye level and not that far away. All we had to do was turn around walk three steps to get more beverages. People staked out their spots on all levels. The dance floor / body surfing / mosh pit filled up. Myth really does seem to have pretty good space and the stage is quite large. Let’s face it…it’s all brand new so of course it is nice. The beers were kind of spendy at $5 each. Went to the bathroom three times and there was never a wait and was not crowded and the attendant even offered me a towel to dry my hands. The ticket takers, bouncers, bartenders, sound guys we spoke with were all very accommodating. (special KUDO’s to the friendly “shark tooth necklace” “Shot Selling barmaid mistress”) (lower case D if you know what I mean)
The sound mix ended up being pretty AWESOME.
Overall as a venue I would give Myth definitely THUMBS UP!
Wolfmother
Like a lot of people I fell in love with the first Wolfmother CD from the moment I first discovered it. It has that sound and feel that made me think back to how I felt in my youth and that’s probably why I like it. It sounds a lot like a mix of Sabbath, Rush, Led Zep and others of the “classic rock” vibe. For the most part the songs are fairly simply pieced together, not really that complex, no Guitar leads that are just going to WOW you, but catchy songs you might find yourself humming later on. Lead singer / guitarist Andrew Stockdale is the only vocalist. Hopefully you like his voice and he can definitely get to that “high range”. I was concerned that being a three piece they might struggle to deliver in concert what they put down in studio. That was not an issue as WOLFMOTHER ROCKED!! They seemed to really be having fun. They played the whole album of course. They played one new song that I did not catch the name of and of course threw in the one cover tune Communication Breakdown by Led Zeppelin!! It was a lot of fun watching them perform. It was a bit entertaining watching the bass player switch from the bass to the keyboards or even play bits of both at the same time.
(a little bit of the Deep Purple / Jon Lord rocking his Hammond) They didn’t seem to be playing ROCK STAR…well maybe some….their movements onstage seemed genuine and not staged. To me they seemed to be truly enjoying what they were doing, seemed appreciative of where there music has gotten them and appreciative of the crowd. If you are looking for a play by play analysis and breakdown of each song during the night this review is NOT IT. All I know is WOLFMOTHER ROCKED !!
They could have easily just stepped out of the 70’s. Their music is right down my alley.
I would see them in concert again if they ever come back. Several THUMBS UP!!
Hopefully they can keep the vibe going on their next CD and have a little staying power.
Icarus Line
Icarus Line was the warm up band. I had not really heard much of them but was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and keep an open mind. I was not much impressed.
I realize as any band playing originals, you really feel like your music is “special” and you want / expect people to like your music. But let’s remember …YOU ARE THE WARM UP BAND. We did not brave a fricking midwest Blizzard to come see YOU!
The lead singer seemed to act like the crowd should be just going nuts over their band. Don’t you stupid / hick / farmers up here in this God forsaken part of the world realize WE ARE ROCK STARS and WE ARE FROM L.A.!!!!! Nice attitude pal. You got about a half hour to 45 minutes to show us what your music is all about and win us over. If we feel like clapping we will clap. After the first few songs the crowd wasn’t much enthused and of course the lead singer had to “show us” how to clap our hands at the end of the song. I must be old and just not get it. As far as the music it was not really clear to me where the beginning , middle and ending of the songs were. I want to hear a hook, I want to hear a refrain or a chorus and maybe some verses. I gotta have some sort of structure I guess. And it would not been that hard to win us over even if the songs themselves were marginal. I almost would have liked the last song but your attitude clouded my desire. Sorry your “singer” had to throw down the microphone and sulk / stomp off stage at the end of the set. Sorry the rest of your band had to do the same only to return with their tails between their legs to retrieve their gear. To bad the best applause you got was when you announced this will be our last song! To bad all the people around us got a good laugh when my buddy HBP III loudly proclaimed for all to hear “I can sum up this band in two words. SHIT SANDWICH !” (from Spinal Tap the Movie for all you hicks out there)
Thank god for Wolfmother!!
Most of us reading music reviews more than likely have read other reviews by the same author and have a general idea of the authors “frame of reference” that he or she has regarding a particular genre of music or a particular music venue or scene. Also as everyone knows 5 people can go to the same event and come away with 5 totally different opinions of what they just experienced. One might give a thumbs up. One might offer a thumbs down and three waffling somewhere in the middle. I remember one critics “review” of a particular movie I had wanted to see and they more or less stated that it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. After seeing the movie myself I might have thought it SUCKED. Going forward from there I might not have as much respect for that particular critics opinion or generally took their opinion with a grain of salt. Over time you seem to generally find critics you can loosely agree with on most topics.
So, rather than just throw my opinion “out there” I figure I had best first come clean on a little background on who I think I am and what makes me tick and why my opinion might evolve to the conclusion I arrive at.
Me, Me, ME…all about me. You guessed correctly…..I’m “oldish” …well I think young or I think I think young…at least people have told me I seem to have a youthful outlook on life. Ok, blurting it out….I am 50. Yes 50 years old. This means that when I was a teenager I was living in the late sixties and seventies. Many of my early musical experiences in life for me revolved around many of the bands that are now considered “classic rock”. Don’t worry, I won’t be claiming that I was actually at Woodstock, but you will have to trust me one this one. It was a great time to love music and be a teenager !!! Those times, for better or worse are permanently etched in my psyche.
I have been a musician most of my life starting with hacking on grandma’s piano as a toddler, playing trumpet starting in the 4th grade, singing in the church choir and evolving from there to guitar and bass……
Anyway, at this point in my life….
Do I go out regularly on the Minneapolis musicscene to check out new bands? No
Do I ever get out of the house? Yes
Do I feel I have my thumb on the heart beat of the local MusicScene ? No
Have I been to every venue in town? No
Have I been to MOST of the musical venues in town? No
Do I like and appreciate all forms of music including RAP and Opera? No
Do I consider myself a musical authority? No
Am I even in a band? Yes
Do I have aspirations of grandeur or a place in music history? No
All I know is that I do love music and I know what I like and here it is!
Myth Nightclub
I live in North Metro suburbia. I’ve been to shows at First Avenue. I like going to shows at First Avenue. At first it felt weird going to Myth. Didn’t seem right going to a nightclub in suburbia, especially basically in a Mall parking lot. One of the nice things for me is it is just as easy to drive to Myth as it would be to drive to First Avenue. I take that back. It’s actually EASIER ! Parking is easier too. Plenty of parking….and FREEEEE…We got there at ten minutes to 8:00 when the doors were to open. Originally we were going to leave our coats in the car but decided against it due to the BLIZZARD. There was a fairly long line outside already and the snow was blowing / cold as heck in the wind…..Great decision to wear the coats. Of course if I WERE still a young punk in my twenties, I would have been right there with many other of the “manly men” standing in line with only a T-Shirt and sandles freezing my ass off so everyone would be able to see all my tattoos but pretending the weather didn’t bother me and only losers would even want to be seen wearing a coat, let along a hat and gloves…but I digress. (oh and don't forget the "boonesfarm babes" flirting with Kinger - he still must be a chick magnet)
Apparently the doors were opening right at 8:00, we were fairly far back in line.
A guy appeared barking orders. “When I say go, everyone from here to here stay in the line you are in, everyone from right here to ……..(walking back farther in the line)…here advance forward and start line two and then those from here to here move forward to start line three.” GO !! Of course we joked with those around us that he didn’t really work for the Myth he was just trying to start a riot or get his friends in quicker.
In what seemed to be only a few minutes past eight were on our way in, getting stamped, checked for weapons, tagged with a wrist band so we could imbibe our favorite beverages and there we were…checking out Myth for the first time. On the way in we noticed a sign stating the “fire code capacity” was 4,400 people. We wandered around checking it out looking for our “spot”. We didn’t have too look far. We knew we didn’t need to be right down on the dance floor so we set up just behind to the right of the sound board. Not a table but a great place to stand, a ledge for our beverages, no way anything would be blocking our view as the next level in front of us was 4 feet below us. The stage was right at our eye level and not that far away. All we had to do was turn around walk three steps to get more beverages. People staked out their spots on all levels. The dance floor / body surfing / mosh pit filled up. Myth really does seem to have pretty good space and the stage is quite large. Let’s face it…it’s all brand new so of course it is nice. The beers were kind of spendy at $5 each. Went to the bathroom three times and there was never a wait and was not crowded and the attendant even offered me a towel to dry my hands. The ticket takers, bouncers, bartenders, sound guys we spoke with were all very accommodating. (special KUDO’s to the friendly “shark tooth necklace” “Shot Selling barmaid mistress”) (lower case D if you know what I mean)
The sound mix ended up being pretty AWESOME.
Overall as a venue I would give Myth definitely THUMBS UP!
Wolfmother
Like a lot of people I fell in love with the first Wolfmother CD from the moment I first discovered it. It has that sound and feel that made me think back to how I felt in my youth and that’s probably why I like it. It sounds a lot like a mix of Sabbath, Rush, Led Zep and others of the “classic rock” vibe. For the most part the songs are fairly simply pieced together, not really that complex, no Guitar leads that are just going to WOW you, but catchy songs you might find yourself humming later on. Lead singer / guitarist Andrew Stockdale is the only vocalist. Hopefully you like his voice and he can definitely get to that “high range”. I was concerned that being a three piece they might struggle to deliver in concert what they put down in studio. That was not an issue as WOLFMOTHER ROCKED!! They seemed to really be having fun. They played the whole album of course. They played one new song that I did not catch the name of and of course threw in the one cover tune Communication Breakdown by Led Zeppelin!! It was a lot of fun watching them perform. It was a bit entertaining watching the bass player switch from the bass to the keyboards or even play bits of both at the same time.
(a little bit of the Deep Purple / Jon Lord rocking his Hammond) They didn’t seem to be playing ROCK STAR…well maybe some….their movements onstage seemed genuine and not staged. To me they seemed to be truly enjoying what they were doing, seemed appreciative of where there music has gotten them and appreciative of the crowd. If you are looking for a play by play analysis and breakdown of each song during the night this review is NOT IT. All I know is WOLFMOTHER ROCKED !!
They could have easily just stepped out of the 70’s. Their music is right down my alley.
I would see them in concert again if they ever come back. Several THUMBS UP!!
Hopefully they can keep the vibe going on their next CD and have a little staying power.
Icarus Line
Icarus Line was the warm up band. I had not really heard much of them but was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and keep an open mind. I was not much impressed.
I realize as any band playing originals, you really feel like your music is “special” and you want / expect people to like your music. But let’s remember …YOU ARE THE WARM UP BAND. We did not brave a fricking midwest Blizzard to come see YOU!
The lead singer seemed to act like the crowd should be just going nuts over their band. Don’t you stupid / hick / farmers up here in this God forsaken part of the world realize WE ARE ROCK STARS and WE ARE FROM L.A.!!!!! Nice attitude pal. You got about a half hour to 45 minutes to show us what your music is all about and win us over. If we feel like clapping we will clap. After the first few songs the crowd wasn’t much enthused and of course the lead singer had to “show us” how to clap our hands at the end of the song. I must be old and just not get it. As far as the music it was not really clear to me where the beginning , middle and ending of the songs were. I want to hear a hook, I want to hear a refrain or a chorus and maybe some verses. I gotta have some sort of structure I guess. And it would not been that hard to win us over even if the songs themselves were marginal. I almost would have liked the last song but your attitude clouded my desire. Sorry your “singer” had to throw down the microphone and sulk / stomp off stage at the end of the set. Sorry the rest of your band had to do the same only to return with their tails between their legs to retrieve their gear. To bad the best applause you got was when you announced this will be our last song! To bad all the people around us got a good laugh when my buddy HBP III loudly proclaimed for all to hear “I can sum up this band in two words. SHIT SANDWICH !” (from Spinal Tap the Movie for all you hicks out there)
Thank god for Wolfmother!!
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